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Monday, November 3, 2014

Garden share collective, heading into November

Once again it is time to link up with Lizzie at the Garden Share collective
I looked back on last month where I was saying how dry it was, and it is still dry! We had a few sprinkles, but watering the garden is something that we just do not do here! I put up an extra shade cloth, but really need to purchase in some sugar cane mulch for the veggie patch. I have been using my compost, but it is not enough. We have never seen so many leaves falling, all the compost bins are continually topped up, I have to keep adding water so that they can rot down. I have two shade cloths up, and the only thing I am trying to do is keep the weeds at bay.

The yellow cherrry tomatoes are still producing, and I have two types of eggplant the tsalonika long purple and a little round thai white one that I got from a lady at the markets. Both growing in wicking beds.

The asparagus bed was quite over run when I returned so that had to be attended to. I had mulched well before leaving for my trip, but there were cosmos, amaranth and even some cherry tomatoes trying to wend their way in. The tomatoes in the wicking beds in front were tied up so that they were not sprawling all over the paths, and that looked a bit neater immediately. This weekend I pulled out the last of those tomato plants.

The rosella was full of flowers on my return, so I dried some for tea and saved seeds and will plant more out along the back fence. I have started the seeds, and have three that have come up. I might start some more.

There are some little buds on my coffee bush, so I am anxiously watching those to see what happens.

The pepper vine seems happy enough. I heard that it only fruits on sideways branches so I have been pruning it back.

I purchased a rhubarb plant and planted it in the front of the asparagus bed.

The microgreens I started out did not survive outside, under the shadecloth, even with daily watering, so I am trying them in some coir in my multilayered sprouter inside the kitchen.

In the next month I am going to add some mulch and keep down the weeds as much as possible. This time of the year is not our best growing season

16 comments:

What a cool idea to use the rosella leaves for tea. I have never heard of that. I am growing them myself for the first time to make my own labour intensive jam. Which I love. Your garden is looking lush and nice timing with the shade sails. I am doing mine this week.

Your shade sail set up looks very effective. I hope that you get some rain soon to help the garden along. Beautiful eggplants :-) I am looking forward to seeing what happens with your coffee plant too.

e,some days I think all I have are problems.... I think we need to all be realistic and if all we looked at are those huge baskets of produce that some people seem to produce on a regular basis, then I think I would give up. Seeing how someone has adapted to a particular problem in their garden is sooo helpful.

You are so lucky to have a pepper vine! I planted one but it died over winter so it is not warm enough here. How exciting! Your eggplants are divine, is the white one as nice as the purple one? Awesome tomatoes too. It is sprinkling here now, I wish I could send you some. Happy gardening and weeding :D

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Quotes I enjoy

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables, they probably get jet-lagged, just like people do - Elizabeth Berry

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7

The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more,

but in developing the capacity to enjoy less

- paraphrased from Socrates quote

“See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

Nature in all its diversity grants us a glimpse into the heart of God the Father which is nothing but Love.

It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you seeHendry David Thoreau

Making a garden is not a gentle hobby for the elderly,to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole, and once it has done so he will have to acceptthat his life is going to be radically changed. May SartonPlant Dreaming Deep, 1983

When the trees sing,It doesn't really matterIf you know the song, Or if you know the words,Or even if you know the tune.What really matters is knowing ....That the trees are singing at all.Mattie Stepanek, 1990-2004

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walkor an evening saunter;to be thrilled by the stars at night:to be elated over a bird's nestor a wildflower in spring... these are some of the rewards of the simple life.John Burroughs, 1837-1921

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…”– Thoreau

“Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

You who walkmaybe with troubled thoughts....Come, enter here and restand may the sweet serenityof growing things....and the heavenly peacebe mirrored in thy soul.by Michael Palmer

Gods GardenThe Lord God planted a gardenIn the first white days of the world,And he set there an angel wardenIn a garment of light enfurled.So near to the peace of HeavenThat the hawk might nest with the wren,For there in the cool of the evenGod walked with the first of men.And I dream that these garden closesWith their shade and their sun-flecked sodAnd their lilies and bowers of roses,Were laid by the hand of God.The kiss of the sun for pardon,The song of the birds for mirth, -One is nearer God’s heart in a gardenThan anywhere else on earth.For He broke it for us in a gardenUnder the olive-treesWhere the angel of strength was the wardenAnd the soul of the world found ease.Dorothy Francis Gurney

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.Mary Jean Iron

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.Albert Einstein

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."~ John Lubbock******************************************************